Fastest Known Podcast

When you think about the Netherlands, you probably call to mind canals, windmills, and shoes. But in the east the nearly 500 kilometer Pieterpad Trail traverses a wide variety of landscapes as it travels from the sea in the north to the hilly terrain of the south. Sometimes referred to as the Dutch Camino, this trail offers a little bit of everything.

For the first time ever, the Appalachian Trail Fastest Known Time has gone under 41 days–taken there by Tara Dower. On today’s episode, Tara and her crew chief Rascal join host and self-supported AT FKT record holder Heather Anderson to talk trail.

Today we’re diving deep into the oak and hickory lined ridges of eastern Oklahoma and central Arkansas as we catch up with Isaac Robinson to hear about his unsupported FKT on the 223 mile Ouachita Trail.

West of Toronto, Canada’s 550 mile long Bruce Trail travels along the Niagara Escarpment, from the famous falls northward onto a peninsula that juts into the Great Lakes. This ribbon of wilderness is a well-maintained gem of predominantly hardwood forest. In 2016 a team of 18 women completed the trail relay style in what they called the Wild Bruce Chase. In 2023, one of those women went back for more. 

The Colorado 14ers are a prominent mountain list in the United States with a long history of FKTs on them. This week’s guests have been a huge part of that history, with each of them having established multiple FKTs in these mountains over the years. In this episode, we learn how Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sansone decided to contribute to the 14ers legacy as a team.

This week we’re taking a trip to the land of mud, moose, and rocks in northern New Hampshire where Phoebe Seltzer set the supported FKT on the 170-mile Cohos Trail in 3 days, 10 hours. The southern terminus of the Cohos Trail is located at Crawford Notch in the heart of the uber-popular White Mountains.